Joe Barbaro
Joe Barbaro (1924-1951, his death is implied, but uncertain) is Vito Scaletta's best friend. While Vito was fighting in WWII, he started to get into illegal activities. When Vito returns from the war with nothing but family debt, Joe helps him out, inviting Vito to join him in his life of crime. He is also the playable character of the upcoming DLC Joe's Adventures. Background Joe is a career criminal and lifelong friend of Vito Scaletta. Brash and unpredictable, Joe can seemingly make trouble out of nothing. As a child, Joe was the neighbourhood bully. He met Vito when the younger boy offered to fight him for a place in his gang. Over the next 10 years, the pair of them made a great team, rational Vito keeping wild Joe in check as they enjoyed a life of petty crime. The pair became closer than brothers and trust each other with their lives. These days Joe lives large - strong booze, fast cars and loose women. Moving up the criminal ladder is the perfect way for him to feed his vices. When Vito returns home on leave from the war, Joe finds him and gives him forged discharge documents to ensure that Vito doesn't have to return. After Vito's father died, his debts to local loan sharks were passed on to his family. He convinces Vito to join him in the Mafia to settle his father's debts before the loan sharks come after his family. Joe and Vito become 'Made Men' in the Falcone family at some point in 1951. Involvement Joe greets Vito at the train station when he finds out Vito was coming home from the war, while catching up and having a drink with Vito Joe discovers that he is only on leave for a month, he then makes a call to Giuseppe and asks him to make some fake discharge papers so Vito doesn't have to go back. He then shows Vito around the city and introduces him to people such as Giuseppe, Tommy and Mike Bruski who gives Vito his first job. The next day Joe introduces Vito to Henry Tomasino, a made man in the Clemente family, Henry then tells Vito to rob the Office of Price Administration. He is seen again in Murphy's Law where he and Vito are told to rob a jewellery store becuase the owner owes Don Clemente money, the robbery was joing accoring to plan until Brian O'Neill and his crew try to rob the same store while Vito and Joe are robbing it, they get away with the jewellery after a shootout with the Irish Gang and the Police. In The Buzzsaw Joe and Vito help Henry with killing Sidney Pen after waiting a couple of hours Pen arrives with his guards, after Vito kills the guards with an MG42 the trio go after Pen in his distillery, after a shootout with his guards Pen shhots Henry, Joe then carries him out of the burning distillery and he and Vito take him to see El Greco for medical assisstance. He is next seen at Vito's trial and he visits Vito when he is in prison and tells him to see Leone Galante. After Vito's release Joe shows him his new apartment, they then meat up with Eddie Scarpa, the Falcone crime family Underboss who he's been working for since the Clemente's tried to charge them for becoming made men. The trio go to th Cathouse to celebrate Vito's release however Joe and Vito discover that Eddie has the body of Frankie Potts, an FBI informant, in the trunk, they then go to bury him before Vito took Joe and Eddie back to Joe's place. To make up for the previous night's events Joe takes Vito to sell some Cigarettes but after a while some Greasers try to make them hand over the cigarettes to them as it is on there turf, Joe refuses so the Greasers set the truck on fire, Joe then shoots a greaser and he and Vito try to chase down some more. After telling Eddie what had happened they met up with Stephen Coyne to sort out the greasers, first the blew up their bar and then they killed all the greasers in the Empire Bay Forge, during this Marty saved Joe from been shot, Joe and Vito then steal some Hot Rods from the greasers and sell them to Federico Pappalardo to get Eddie his money back. Joe is next seen in Balls and Beans t Later, Vito and Joe are told to kill Don Alberto Clemente, who had called a big meeting at the Empire Arms hotel. the plan succeeded, but Marty was killed in the process causing Joe to go into depression. Personality Joe is very loud and flamboyant and therefore the opposite of his best friend Vito who is the strong silent type. He is very similar to Falcone Underboss Eddie Scarpa. He is a shoot-first-ask-later kind of guy and his best friend Vito is often left to clean up his mess. Death (possibly implied) At the end of the game after Carlo Falcone is killed by Vito Scaletta because of a deal that he had made with Leone Galante, Joe is taken into another car as they go celebrate at the Cathouse. As Vito speaks with Leone in the car on the way to the Cathouse, he soon finds out that Joe is on his way to being possibly whacked. Leone says that Joe wasn't a part of the deal, because of the trouble he made with Vito earlier in the game. The credits then roll after the camera dollys away from the vehicle of Vito and Leone. But his fate still remains unknown. It is suspected that his fate may be revealed in a future DLC, as a DLC pack named "Joe's Adventures" is being released soon. Vehicles owned by Joe *Culver Empire - 1945 *Smith Custom 200 - 1951 *Shubert Beverly - A Friend of Ours *Ascot Bailey S200 - Exit the Dragon Notable murders committed by Joe *Sidney Pen, shot by Joe and Vito from orders of Luca Gurino. *Alberto Clemente, shot multiple times from the orders of Don Carlo Falcone and in revenge for killing Marty. *Zhe Yun Wong, shot in the head after killing Henry and stealing their money. *Thomas Angelo, shot in the chest from the orders of Eddie Scarpa, as a "gift" for the Salieri crime family. *Leon, shot by a drunken Joe. *Vinci Capo (possibly), beaten to death after kidnapping and beating Joe and Vito. Trivia *Joe was born in 1924 (He's one year older than Vito). *That being said, he was 19 years old at the beginning of Mafia 2. *Denby Grace described him as a "shoot first, ask questions later kinda guy". *His apartment will change over time to reflect his changing income and tastes. *His appearance, much like Vito's, has changed since the beginning of development. *Joe favors a Tommy Gun, but is also seen with the Colt M1911 Special several times, and (although much less often), a shotgun. *The game ends in 1951 making Joe 27 at the game's end. *In game dialogue shows Joe has a sister often yelling " you shoot like my sister" during combat. He also sports a "Jesus, you drive like my fucking grandmother!" in some driving scenes, with Vito often responding, "What the hell, she's still alive?" *In Chapter 14: Stairway to Heaven, Joe and Vito have to kill Thomas Angelo as part of a job, all they knew was that he ratted out his friends to the feds. *In Chapter 10 after he kills Don Clemente you can see him crying for Marty. This is the only time that Joe cries in the game. *Joe's friendship with the teenager Marty resembles the life of young Henry Hill in Goodfellas as Henry joined the Mafia at a young age just like Marty. When Tommy Devito is killed in Goodfellas. This deeply effects Jimmy Conway in the same way as it effected Joe in Chapter 10. Yet another reference to Goodfellas is The scene where Joe is selling cigarettes with Vito in The Wild Ones. This scene resembles the scene where Jimmy Conway is selling cigarettes to corrupt officers. Joe also sold some to a corrupt officer in The Wild Ones. *Joe is one of the characters on the Mafia II game cover along with Vito, Eddie and Henry *In cutscenes he can be seen wearing a crucifix, he is most likely catholic though not devoutly so. *It's possible that Joe's name is reference to real Don Joseph Barbara. *Joe will sometimes complain when Vito goes over the speed limit or passes through a red light. This goes against his nature to act and have fun with out thinking. *It is unknown wether Joe is Sicilian like Vito and Henry. *Joe is the only character other than Vito that appears in every chapter, though sometimes only in cutscenes. *It is relieved in Chapter 7 (In Loving Memory of Francesco Potenza) that one of his favourite singers is Dean Martin. He and Eddie can both be heard singing his song Return to Me after Vito's "Welcome Back party". *Joe will join Vito, Jimmy and Tommy as one of the playable characters in the Mafia series in a new DLC pack titled Joe's Adventures for Mafia II. * Joe has a calander in his Apartment thats dated September 1943, in the third chapter. *Joe seems to have lost weight while Vito was in prison. Gallery joe_profile.jpg|Concept art of Joe. Joey barbaro.jpg Vito joe profile.jpg|Concept art of Vito and Joe. joe barbaro mafia 1.jpg|Joe, in his first ever appearance (Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven) File:Henryvitojoe.jpg|Joe with friends Vito and Henry. File:Joe_in_with_the_girls.jpg|Joe at the Cathouse. Barbaro.jpg|Joe's early appearance. Mafiaii 018.jpg|Joe and Vito. File:Mafia_II_-_Digital_Deluxe_Artbook-036.png File:Joey.jpg Barbaro, Joe Barbaro, Joe